Artist of the Day: Joanna Quinn

Millions of people are likely to be familiar with the colorful cartoon bears that savor wiping their butts with softer than average toilet paper. Joanna Quinn is the character designer and animator behind the original commercials that feature the hand drawn versions of these characters. The Charmin bears have recently been transitioned to CGI, arguably resulting in less charm. There’s nothing wrong with the new ads, but they just can’t supply the human element that the graphite smeared drawings of the originals carried with them directly from Joanna’s pencil to the television screen. The production company responsible for the new approach is not Joanna’s, although she is credited as a creative consultant.

I’m curious about the progression that the designs took from Joanna’s pencil animation to Joanna’s animation cleaned up and colored in a slicker fashion (see the “new look” commercials on her website), to CG characters, and what the driving forces behind the decisions to change the art over time could have been.

If the original designs had been created with a slick commercial sheen from the beginning, like your average cereal mascot ad, then there would be nothing to discuss here. But because they started with the distinctive pencil work of Joanna Quinn, it seems strange to buff out the roughness and individuality over time until eventually removing her unique stamp from the work entirely. Is it simply an inevitable progression? An example of typical corporate decision making? Does slicker work sell more rolls?

PARTNER MESSAGE

Fortunately, besides creating commercials, Joanna’s larger interest is undoubtedly creating her personal, funny, and expressively drawn films. Above are stills from her short film Dreams and Desires: Family Ties which she directed and animated with additional animation by Andy McPherson.

On her Beryl Productions website you can see a selection of production art from some of her films such as the above layout drawings from Famous Fred, which is also available there to watch in full.

Chris McDonnell is the editor of Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day feature. A founding member of the Meathaus comics/art collective, he has created animation for shows such as Yo Gabba Gabba and Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! His books include Sasquatch's Big Hairy Drawing Book and Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi.

nick

What an amazing artist….!

BJ Crawford

One of my favorite artists. Thanks for posting!

jhalpernkitcat

The original Charmin bears were really fun to watch–especially the very first commercial. The expressions on the bear’s face were perfectly done, and cute.

Can it be that the new bear sells more rolls? The original Joanna’s commercial was one of the most memorable talked about ads at the time, I doubt anybody is excited about the blue 3D version. The unique warm natural feel of the original has evolved into synthetic slick, cold-colored thing. Is that the right direction for a product boasting of ultra-softness?

Jamaal Bradley

Joanna Quinn is definitely one of my favorite animators. Her work has always stood out from the crowd. The line work pulls you in immediately and her artistic sensibility is beautiful in the execution.

Love her work too, but I don’t think it’s hard to know why they switched to CG. Most marketing heads are looking for trends, not tradition or taste particularly.

Michael Sporn

I’m with Steve. The toilet paper commercials took a turn years ago and lost their charm then. They were always designed to pay Joanna’s bills, and she smartly put everything into the independently produced short films she did. I wonder if she thinks this loss of income would mean it’ll take longer for the next film to be completed. That would be the loss – our loss.

She’s undoubtedly the finest draughtsperson in the business, and together with her husband are producing some of the finest films on the market. More power to them both.

Thanks for recommending additional films for people to seek out. Toilet paper commercials are obviously lesser work than an artist’s personal films. However, using illustrated examples of the style changes in the commercial work I was able explore what is special about Joanna’s animation in the first place and raise questions that I’m interested in. The bears are likely to be what most people are aware of so it makes sense to connect that awareness to her other work, as I did in the post.

Arguably I know Joanna more for those short films over her ad work myself, though I did enjoy what she could put on the screen for a half-minute at a time when she was doing those.

TKeen

“Is it simply an inevitable progression? An example of typical corporate decision making? Does slicker work sell more rolls?”

… Just saw the CGI bear ad the other day. It’s as though all ad agencies and studios on this continent have passed laws banning hand-drawn animation.

Nicham

YES. Been a fan of a Joanna for a large percentage of my life but I just DID not know her name! Thank you. Her chalky, whipsy style has always been appealing to me, and she has an incredible sense of timing, comedic timing even. Love it love it love it… thanks for “Reconnecting” me with her.